Coupled with 3D printing, biomining the Moon or Mars with microbes could sustain human colonies without constant re-supply from Earth.
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It is humanity’s biggest step yet into the Solar System.
Some think the reason fundamental scientific revolutions are so rare is because of groupthink. It’s not; it’s hard to mess with success.
Shortly after planet Earth formed, life took a permanent hold on our surface. But just how common is such an outcome?
Nearly 200 orbital launches are scheduled for 2022.
Communication with home will be difficult on long-haul space flights. The longer this isolation goes on, the more detached a crew becomes.
Based on the atoms that they’re made out of, the innermost planet should always be the densest. Here’s why Earth beats Mercury, hands down.
Google maps won’t guide you to Mars – but will your compass work in space?
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Preventing scurvy is not just a problem in the Antarctic.
We give it the flight plan, and it takes care of the rest. It has to. Here’s why. No matter how advanced our technology becomes, there are certain limits that can […]
The boiling new world, which zips around its star at ultraclose range, is among the lightest exoplanets found to date.
The space‑specific neurons in the owl’s specialized auditory brain can do advanced math.
Nobody actually knows what will come of AI. But we can console ourselves with the knowledge that nobody has ever really known anything about the future.
These startups, space agencies, and aerospace giants are building humanity’s next off-world homes.
Speculation about the existence of aliens goes all the way back at least to the Greek philosophers. Their arguments will sound familiar.
Scientists have long puzzled over how Mars, a cold and dry planet, was once warm enough to support liquid water.
Astrophysicist Michelle Thaller explains how a solar storm could wipe out civilization… and what we can do to prevent catastrophe.
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While Mars is known as a frozen, red planet today, it has all the evidence we could ask for of a watery past, lasting for approximately the first 1.5 billion […]
Humanity can avoid catastrophe — if we look beyond our blinkered present.
A tiny layer of microscopic dust is the only reason it appears red. When we look out at our planet Earth from space, we see a myriad of diverse colors. The […]
Water is vital for life. Luckily for spacefaring humans, the solar system is full of it.
The findings include signs of flash flooding that carried huge boulders downstream into the lakebed.
Our views from the red planet’s surface are more spectacular than ever. Ever since the earliest spaceflight, humanity has reached for Mars. This photo composite shows Meande Ring, a river on […]
Humanity is never fully in control of its creations. This lesson from Mary Shelley has remained relevant for over 200 years.
Sound waves behave quite differently on Mars than on Earth.
In the spirit of the 1969 moon landing, we now have a golden opportunity to pursue “nondisruptive” creative solutions.
On Earth, microbial growth is common in lava tubes no matter the location and climate, whether it’s ice-volcano interactions in Iceland or hot, sand-floored lava tubes in Saudi Arabia.
“Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”
Finding out we’re not alone in the Universe would fundamentally change everything. Here’s how we could do it.
The recently discovered Oort cloud comet, Bernardinelli–Bernstein, has the largest known nucleus: 119 km. Here’s what it could do to Earth.